


This Is Not A Love Song

by snickeringmoth



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Battle of the Bands, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Ladynoir | Adrien Agreste as Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng as Ladybug, Punk Rock, Punk bands, Slow Burn, band rivals, pop punk - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-16 13:42:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29950845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snickeringmoth/pseuds/snickeringmoth
Summary: 24 year old Adrien Agreste, under the stage name and mask of Chat Noir, is the lead singer of punk rock band, Chaos Creatures. Newly dubbed “Boy Band of the Year” after the release of their hit album, the boys have no reason to fear their secured spot at #1. That is until pop punk band The Miracle Girls, lead by 21 year old “Ladybug”, blows them off the charts. When both bands are invited to host a major musical festival, rumors fly, tensions rise, romance sparks, and drama unravels with every song.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, ladynoir
Comments: 9
Kudos: 87





	This Is Not A Love Song

**Author's Note:**

> each chapter title is based off a song, this one is by My Chemical Romance. it should be noted that they are not superheroes in this story. chat noir, ladybug, rena rouge, carapace, all those names are just their stage names/the persona they are on stage. i also do not own any of the characters and all that copyright bs. this is my first fanfic on ao3 so please be nice.  
> kk that's all, enjoy :)

To say Adrien is panicking is an understatement. 

To be clear: Adrien is not panicking. Panicking is for situations like when the tour bus breaks down and fans begin swarming around it, leaving you trapped for a good two hours before security and police finally clear them out. Or when your best friend’s parents are coming over in less than 30 minutes, and you and your four other roommates realize no one has bothered to clean the house or even prepared dinner. Panicking is for your teenage years. Forgetting to bring your project to school after working on it all night. Being called on by the teacher when you haven’t been paying attention. When you’re sneaking out to go to a party your father specifically told you not to go to, and when he catches you sneaking back in at two in the morning with a girlfriend he didn’t know you had. Most of all, panicking only happens when you are in a situation you were aware of, and that situation all of a sudden becomes something you were unprepared for. Panicking insinuates that you knew where you stood initially, and what you  _ thought  _ couldn’t go wrong, goes wrong. 

So no. Adrien is not panicking when he sees that a new  pop punk  band by the name of “The Miracle Girls” has surpassed Chaos Creatures on  _ every single musical platform there is on earth _ , stealing their spots at number one, despite having just released a brand new album that broke Jagged Stone’s records and having been dubbed “Boy Band of the Year” by  _ Rolling Stone _ . He isn’t panicking because  _ this shouldn’t have even been possible for a band that got together only two years ago and doesn’t even have a full album out yet.  _ He would be panicking if this was one of Jagged Stone’s songs surpassing them. Hell, Adrien would be panicking if it was a Clara Nightingale song. 

But no. This isn’t Jagged Stone  _ or  _ Clara Nightingale, or even Queen Bee. 

This is a band no one has ever heard before, seen before, endorsed before, liked before,  _ known  _ before.

Adrien isn’t panicking. 

He’s losing his goddamn mind. 

“ _WHO_ _ARE THEY?_ ” Adrien screams over the phone to Nino, getting concerned from pedestrians as he steps into his car. Every last ounce of sanity Adrien ever possessed (which, granted, after living with Kim for a solid six years, isn’t a lot) drains out of his body as he buckles his seatbelt. 

“We don’t know, dude,” Nino says much too calmly for Adrien’s liking. “Apparently they’ve been making music together unofficially since they were teenagers, but only as a band for about two years. That’s pretty much all everyone knows about them.” 

“Okay well my question is,” Adrien pauses to take a breath before shouting, “ _ WHO. ARE. THEY. _ ” 

“Some chicks, dude!” Nino shouts back, obviously upset at Adrien’s tone more than anything. “They just came out of the blue! I’m telling you,  no one knows anything about them! ” 

Adrien has never, in his 24 years of living, been as furious and annoyed as he is right now. He pinches the bridge of his nose, doing his best not to go on a rampage. The last thing Paris needs after this  _ atrocity  _ is its supermodel golden boy to tear it apart until he found  _ The Miracle Girls _ —who just so happened to be also located in Paris. (So not only are they stealing their spots at number one, but they're stealing the hearts of every Parisian.)

“You know what,” Adrien says after a brief moment of silence, “you know what we need, Nino?”

“Uh, what?”

Adrien tosses his head back against the seat. “Croissants.” At this he leans forward again to tap his bodyguard, Gorilla. He looks back at Adrien through the rear-view mirror. “Bakery?” Adrien proposes, and Gorilla nods. He returns his attention to Nino on the phone. “I’ll pick up a couple boxes right now from the bakery. Make sure all the guys are home.”

“You got it, dude,” Nino says. 

With that Adrien hangs up, huffing with anger still. From where they are, it doesn’t take long to make it to the bakery, and when it pulls into sight his mood brightens slightly. He had been coming to Tom and Sabine’s bakery for years, since he was about 14. It was the best in Paris and everyone knew it. Adrien could enter in the foulest mood (which often times, he did), but the moment he saw Sabine’s gentle smile or heard Tom’s warm welcome, he just couldn’t stay mad. A smile found its way onto his lips as he stepped out of the car and made his way to the door. He, even if it was just going to be for a short amount of time, is going to be okay. 

But as he opens the door to the bakery and enters, he realizes the universe is really not on his side today. 

In place of Tom and Sabine is a girl he’s sure he’s never seen before at the bakery, yet is someone he feels like he’s seen before _somewhere_. A couple walks past him and out the door, rendering him the only one the bakery. The girl looks at him and offers a smile. 

“Welcome in!” She says cheerfully, adding, “Is there anything specific you’re looking for?” 

He’s about to say something (what it is, he doesn’t know), when he hears the music. 

Genuinely, as he recounts his day to Nino later on, he states that this is the moment he snapped. 

Because the song that’s playing is The Miracle Girl’s new hit single “Miraculous”. 

And Adrien has just about had it. (He hears the chorus and immediately tunes it out, which isn't that hard given that the volume isn't that loud.)

The girl has an uncomfortable look on her face. She looks away but continues glancing at him wearily. 

He figures he should say something, so he settles for, “You’re not Tom.”

The girl blinks at him.

“Or Sabine,” he adds dumbly. 

The girl scowls slightly at him. “Wow,” she says, “and here I thought I was fooling everyone into thinking I was either of the owners.” She tops off her sarcasm with a chuckle.

Needless to say, he doesn’t appreciate her response. Nor does he like the fact that she’s  _ humming  _ to “Name of Song” as if it’s actually  _ good _ . 

He steps forward to the counter. “I’ve never seen you here before,” he says, somehow expecting that to explain everything. When she seems uninterested in his comment, he asks, “Who are you?”

She leans forward on her elbows. “I’m their daughter,” she says as-a-matter-of-factly, “Marinette.” She grabs the picture frame next to her and turns it around, showing him a photo of her, Tom and Sabine, smiling in front of the bakery. 

“Oh,” he says, “well can I get a dozen croissants.” 

Without saying anything, she takes out a box from under the counter. She piles it with croissants, still humming ( _ does this song ever end? _ ) and rings it up before handing it to him. He pays as quickly as he can and leaves without a goodbye. He’s still fuming with anger at the fact that his favorite bakery has been tainted by that song and the absence of Tom and Sabine. 

_ Whatever, _ he thinks to himself in the car,  _ just get home and we can deal with it as a team _ . 

* * *

Today is the best day of Marinette Dupain-Cheng’s life. Of her 21 years of living and despite being unconventionally lucky, she has never reached this level of happiness before. Not when she got her first internships with Audrey Bourgeois and Gabriel Agreste. Not when she got accepted into the fashion school of her dreams. Absolutely nothing that has happened in her life can compare to the overwhelming amount of joy she is feeling today. 

It’s one of her biggest dreams come true. 

The Miracle Girls hit number one on iTunes, Apple Music, Billboard, and Spotify already. And their song came out  _ four days ago _ . 

Why this didn’t happen with any of their previous three songs, she doesn’t know, but Marinette will stab herself with her sewing needles before she complains about their newfound success. 

She woke up to Alya and Alix screaming louder than she had ever heard before and a completely speechless Kagami. That was two days ago when their song was at number three, behind Jagged Stone and Chaos Creatures. Their streams were still going up by the minute. Their song was trending on nearly every social media platform. The next day, their song hits number one  _ globally _ .

She ran to her parent’s house. Literally  _ ran _ . (She’s never done it before but it doesn’t take her long. She’s gotten pretty good at running from sprinting to school when she was in collège and lycée and was running late everyday without fail.)

Marinette has to be the luckiest person in the world, she thinks as she barges into the bakery, startling most of the customers there. 

Her parents take a moment away from their work to join her in tearful hug full of pride and love. They ask her to cover for them at the front for a few hours so they can throw together a last minute celebration party for the girls. Marinette is so happy, so happy in fact that not even the customer who was obviously having a bad day could bring down her mood. When he leaves, taking his negative energy with him, she returns to sketching in her notebook, humming along to her own song  _ on the radio _ . 

Her day couldn’t possibly get better. 

“Hey, sweetie,” her dad pops his head through the door, “we can take it from here. Go back home and get the girls! You are going to love it!”

Marinette’s smile gets impossibly larger. “Okay, Papa,” she says, walking over to him to plant a kiss on his cheek. She packs up her sketchbook in her purse and heads out of the bakery. As she walks through the streets, she can hear her song playing from various car stereos. It’s enough to make her tear up. 

Even though she isn’t running, she makes it to her apartment in just fifteen minutes. Realizing she forgot her keys, she knocks frantically (because if she doesn’t, it’ll be hours before someone opens the door). It swings open and she flinches in surprise at who it is. 

“Nino!” she yelps. “I didn’t know you were here?” 

Nino steps aside so she can come inside. Alya, Alix, and Kagami all sit at their kitchen counter, huddled around one of their phones. 

“Oh, uh, I was just leaving,” Nino says, reaching up to fiddle with his hat. He looks to Alya, and adds, “I’ll uh, see you later, Al.” 

Alya waves softly. “Yeah see you—”

His phone rings and he sighs, walking out and closing the door with a rushed wave goodbye. 

“—later.” Alya looks at Marinette, who has her eyebrows raised in question. “He was just in the area and decided to come by for a second.”

Marinette walks over to sit with them, asking, “Did he come by to finally ask you on a real date?” 

An awkward silence settles over them as Alya groans. Alya has known Nino since she was fifteen and he was eighteen. Her yearbook club had the opportunity to interview some of the graduating students and she was assigned a boy named Nino Lahiffe. They hit it off really well as friends and stayed in contact even when he graduated. Over the years though, as Alya got older, it became clear they liked each other (Marinette would need an extra set of limbs in order to count all the times she’s tried to convince Alya to confess her feelings for the past two years). They settled on a delicate friends with benefits relationship, despite it being painfully obvious they both are in love with each other. 

“He was  _ going  _ to ask me something,” she starts, “but  _ someone  _ had to barge in.” She pointedly glares in Alix’s direction, who puts her hands up innocently.

“I’m  _ sorry  _ if I wanted to show you guys a video of us on a  _ billboard  _ in  _ Madison Square Garden! _ ” Alix shouts in her defense. 

“WHAT!” Marinette squeals, leaning over them to see Alix’s phone, which shows an image of their cover art on a digital billboard. Marinette’s jaw drops open at the sight, and the other girls smile just as hard. “This is amazing, you guys, oh my gosh!” she exclaims, pulling them into yet another hug. 

Kagami tugs at Marinette’s sleeve slightly. “Seems as though having your ladybugs in the studio when we record  _ is  _ good luck, Mari,” she says, referring to how on the day they recorded Miraculous, Marinette was running late after forgetting to drop off her new ladybugs and their tank at home. Since she was already twenty minutes late and driving home would take another fifteen, she decided to simply bring them into the studio with her, not wanting to leave them alone in the cold car. 

Marinette smiles at the memory. If she went back in time to that day and told then-Marinette that the song they were recording would hit number one globally within just four days, then-Marinette would have laughed in disbelief. 

_ Well believe it _ , she’d tell herself,  _ because it’s going to be your reality _ .

It’s  _ her _ reality. 

A shoutout from Jagged Stone. Clara Nightingale commenting under one of their posts that they deserve it. Even some (slightly bitter) recognition from Queen Bee. Singers and musicians from all over the world congratulating them. It’s more than Marinette could have ever wished for. 

“C’mon!” she says. “My parents are throwing us a little party at the bakery later on tonight in celebration!” 

They cheer together for a moment again before dispersing to get ready. It’s just going to be themselves and their families at the party, but it’s an occasion worthy of dressing up and dolling up. 

They get there three hours later as her parents directed. The rest of their families are already there, waiting (Marinette makes sure to thank her parents for giving Kagami a little more parental love than usual when it's clear her mother won't be coming to celebrate). It’s full of shouts and tears of joy and pastries made by her parents. They pop open champagne and a bottle of wine, and Marinette lets herself drink as much of it as she wants. They give their families a drunk, sloppy performance of their song that leaves everyone laughing and applauding wildly. Marinette looks around at the people she loves the most and a sweet warmth spreads through her. 

They did it. 

Everyone passes out either in the living room or guest room, but Marinette forces herself up to her childhood room. It’s still the same as the day she moved out. Pink and white and lit by fairy lights. Messy desk covered in needles, thread, and pencil shavings. Design ideas scattered everywhere on post-it notes wherever they’ll stick. A photo of her, Alya, Kagami, and Alix on the first day they played together when they were fifteen, framed and hanging next to her bed. 

Marinette crawls under her covers, gazing at a photo of her with her first ladybug, Tikki, on her nose, and falls asleep happier than she’s ever been, thanking the little bug for all the luck she brought and brings to this day.

* * *

It’s been two weeks, and that wretched song?  _ Still  _ at number one. 

“I don’t get it!” he huffs in exasperation, pacing back and forth. 

“What don’t you get?” Luka asks, strumming on his guitar as he lounges on the couch. He’s the only one home besides Adrien, which means he is unfortunately on the receiving end of Adrien’s frustration. (Which, honestly, he doesn't mind. Over the years, the boys have all discovered ways to deal with each other’s tempers). 

“Their song!” Adrien squawks, voice cracking slightly. 

“What about their song?” Luka doesn’t even need to ask who “they” are—Adrien hasn’t been able to rant about anything else. 

“How is it at first? How did it surpass our song after just three days?” Adrien stammers out. 

“Have you even listened to it?” Luka asks, still not looking at Adrien. 

Adrien stops pacing to gape at his friend. “Have  _ you  _ listened to their song?” he asks in retaliation. 

Luka shrugs (curse his overly chill attitude towards literally everything). “It’s been two weeks since its release. Of course I have.” 

“And do you  _ like  _ it?”

Luka stops strumming for a second as he thinks. “Yea,” he settles on, “it isn’t such a bad song to be passed up by.” Luka looks up at him, crystal blue eyes kind as ever. “You should give them a chance, Adrien.” 

Adrien leans against the table where he paused. If there’s anyone’s musical opinion he trusts more than Ninos, it’s definitely Luka. He knows Luka is a sort of musical, lyrical genius himself, so if  _ he’s  _ saying the song is good, then Adrien suspects it might actually be worthy of a number one stop. (And he can never stay mad at his friends, let alone Luka, who will forever be one of the most gentle people he’s ever met.)

“Fine,” Adrien states, giving in, “I’ll listen to it.” 

Luka’s smile is soft but present, and it almost makes Adrien blush. He remembers when he first met Luka through a classmate of his back in collège, and how he might have had the slightest, smallest crush on him. (Of course, over time and through the strong establishment of their band and friendship, he was able to get over it, but Adrien would be lying if he said he didn’t still love Luka with his whole heart.) 

He walks over to where he left his phone charging on the floor and puts on his headphones. He pulls up YouTube to watch the music video as he listens. It begins playing, and the camera pans out to show a pretty girl with a Ladybug mask and dark blue hair. She starts singing and…

...and it’s  _ good _ . 

He watches the whole video through, quietly seething with anger at the audacity the song possess to be  _ actually  _ good. Adrien had been betting on never listening to the song in the first place (for the past two weeks, the moment he hears the opening note or the radio announce it was them, he was there changing the channel. The time he heard it in the bakery didn't count—it was barely audible, between the low volume and the girl's humming). And he decided if he ever actually listened to it, he would have no problem hating it to its core, because it could clearly not be as good as any of their music. But now as he sits on the floor next to the outlet, staring at a black screen once the video ends completely, Adrien understands how it made the Global Top 100 as quickly as it did. Part of him even wants to admit it’s a number one worthy song.

The thought absolutely infuriates him. 

Behind him, Luka laughs, and the front door opens. Kim and Max walk in, grocery bags in hand, Nino trailing not far behind them with tonight’s dinner (when Adrien says they survive off of take out, he  _ means  _ it). Luka gets up to help unload what they’ve brought, still chuckling.

“What’s wrong with him?” Kim asks, throwing his keys onto the counter. 

“Well, given by his current position with his headphones on and YouTube playing,” Max begins, “along with Luka laughing and Adrien’s obvious anger, my guess is that Luka convinced him to listen to The Miracle Girls’ new song, and Adrien realized it’s not as bad as he was hoping it would be.” He smiles triumphantly.

Adrien’s jaw drops. “ _ How do you do that?! _ ” he shouts incredulously. He scans his surroundings for anything he can throw, and he reaches for a crumpled up paper bag. He launches it at Max, who swerves at just the right moment. 

“So you liked their song then?” Luka asks.

“ _ No _ ,” Adrien says, getting up to help them, “I’ll admit that it’s not the worst thing ever written, but I still don’t get what’s the big deal about it.”

“Okay, Adrien,” Luka says, and Adrien can’t tell if he’s being sarcastic or not. 

“Don’t they appear on that Shmuck lady’s show later on?” Kim asks, opening the fridge to put away the cold groceries.

“You mean Nadja Chamack, dude?” Nino asks. 

“Yeah that’s what I said," Kim says confidently, "I heard them talking about it on the radio I think." (Adrien pauses for a moment, _do you?_ )

Nino rolls his eyes. “Kim’s right,” he says, “The Miracle Girls are on Face-to-Face tonight. We could tune in if you want, dude.”

Adrien realizes Nino’s talking to him, and shakes his head. “You guys could watch it, but personally,  _ I  _ couldn’t care less.”

“I’ll watch it with you, Nino,” Luka says, handing out plates to everyone. 

“I will also join you in watching,” Max states. He reaches over to grab the bag of food and starts taking boxes out. 

Kim chimes in that since he’s got nothing better to do, he’ll also be watching with the rest of them. Adrien grabs a plate and fork from Luka and serves himself a share of steak-frites. He stabs into it angrily, genuinely more annoyed than anything. But he knows he can’t lash out on his friends (not that he even really wants to), so when they all finish eating and crowd around the television to watch The Miracle Girls’ interview, Adrien simply resides to his room upstairs. 

It’s unusual for him to isolate himself, but he doesn’t want to give in to his friends anymore than he already has. He lays on his bed and debates on taking a nap or not. There’s a demanding “meow” at the foot of his bed that tells him it’s a good idea, and Plagg scurries up Adrien’s body to rest in the crook of his arms. Adrien honestly never thought he’d like cats, but on the way home from school when he was fourteen, a tiny black kitten followed him, and Adrien couldn’t say no. He cuddles into Plagg and closes his eyes. 

Only to be woken up just twenty minutes later by Plagg’s incessant meows. The cat scowls at Adrien and meows again impatiently, reaching out to poke his face with his black paw.

“You haven’t had your cheese today, have you?” Adrien groans. Plagg meows in response. “Fine, fine,” Adrien relents, getting up, “I’ll go get you some camembert.” 

Plagg jumps off the bed to follow him downstairs to the kitchen. When he passes the living room, Adrien dully notes that his friends are still watching the interview, but makes a show of not looking. He opens the fridge when he reaches it, and rummages through the contents to find the special cheese he keeps for Plagg, who peers into the fridge himself.

_ “You all have received immense praise from some of Paris’ favorite artists…”  _ he can hear Nadja Chamack say on the T.V.,  _ “...Jagged Stone even congratulating you four on surpassing the boy band, Chaos Creatures!” _

_ “We’re extremely honored,”  _ one of the girls says as he finds the camembert and begins unwrapping it. 

“Dude!” Nino complains. “I can smell that from over here.” 

Plagg hisses, glaring in Nino’s direction. 

_ “We haven’t been able to get a quote from the band or their management, but, Ladybug, what do you have to say about Chat Noir’s tweet calling your band a ‘one hit wonder’?” _

Adrien freezes. Even though his back is turned, he knows his friends are all staring at him. 

Okay fine, in his fit of fury sometime in the past week, Adrien may or may not have tweeted from his Chat Noir account that he “wasn’t worried” about their spot being “stolen” because “you can’t let one hit wonders get to your head.” This said tweet may or may not have gone absolutely viral within seconds, reaching both fans groups of the bands. And okay, yeah, maybe it did cause a massive Twitter war and earn him a very long call from his manager, resulting in him deleting the tweet, but in his defense, Adrien was only telling the truth!

There’s a laugh on screen, and a voice he assumes to come from Ladybug says,  _ “Well, Nadja, it’s clear he’s threatened by the presence of another punk band stealing his spotlight. But honestly, the guy can have his petty little one-sided Twitter wars and take a seat, cause The Miracle Girls are here to stay.”  _

_ “Well, there you have it folks _ — _ ” _

Max pauses the show, and he, Kim, Luka, and Nino share worried glances with each other. As much as Adrien denies it, they all know how he can get when someone tries to give him (or them) shit for anything. Being Chat Noir has given him a boost of confidence, one that Adrien was in dire need of. It also gave Adrien a sort of creative freedom he has never had as his civilian self (because even if he wasn't Chat Noir, Adrien would still be in the public eye constantly, except a lot more strictly and a lot less enjoyably). His friends all know if anything were to jeopardize Chat Noir, Adrien would lose it. Ladybug, as casual and light as her words are, has just unknowingly threatened him, and the rest of them prepare to have their ears mouthed off for the next _year_. 

Plagg hisses at Adrien as he squeezes the cheese in his fist, ignoring the smell. In fact, Adrien can even smell anything over the burning stench of his anger. It’s as though all of his senses have failed, except whichever one allows him to feel his blood practically boiling in his veins. _What did she just say?_ he asks himself furiously. Ladybug’s words ring in his ears, pounding on the walls of his skull, bouncing off his brain, clear as day. 

And Adrien declares war. 

**Author's Note:**

> hi so i hope you enjoyed this first chapter :) it’s been a while since i’ve written fanfiction (try four years) so constructive criticism is very much appreciated. i know this chapter is kinda short but trust me they get longer 0.0  
> also expect chapter two in a about two weeks maybe? thanks for reading, and be safe out there!


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